WASHINGTON (CNN) – A book written by President Obama's mother, who died of cancer in 1995, will be published in December, Duke Press announced Monday.

The book is based on Ann Dunham's 14-year research on the metalworking industry in rural Java, an island in Indonesia. Two anthropologists are revising and editing her dissertation into a book, called "Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia."

Dunham died of cancer in 1995, but finished her dissertation for the University of Hawaii in 1992. Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's sister, said she was "delighted" that her mother's book is being published.

"My hope is that this book will be read by those who come to love the particularities of its world and who also see the myriad potential application of its ideas and methods to other worlds," Soetoro-Ng said in a statement